


Our Times of Rest and Relaxation

by avrelia



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang and Toph appear at the very end, Aang is mentioned, All canon ships are there but they are not the focus, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avatar Kyoshi is mentioned, Canon divergence after finale, Comics are disregarded mostly, F/M, Gen, Iroh is mentioned, Kyoshi Island, Non-spoilery references from Kyoshi novels, Sokka is a dork, Suki is being a good leader, The Gaang - Freeform, Toph is mentioned, Zuko is being dramatic, minor references from the novels about Kyoshi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28093746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: Three months after the end of the war the Gaang gathers on the Kyoshi island for some long-needed rest.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15
Collections: ATLA Winter Solstice 2020





	Our Times of Rest and Relaxation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Electrons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Electrons/gifts).



> The title is stolen from the book "My Year of Rest and Relaxation." It was the best I could come up with. The story goes in a slightly different directions than official comics, but I still used The Promise for some ideas. There is not much of a plot here - just loosely connected scenes of the Gaang spending time on Kyoshi Islands. 
> 
> The timeline is vague, but it starts about three months after Sozin's Comet and ends just before Winter Solstice of that year.
> 
> And huge gratitude to my beta readers RoseMagdalena and hdnprplflwrs! You guys weer incredibly helpful! All the mistakes still left are all mine.

The airship was slowly moving through the brilliant sky. Standing on its bridge Suki could see from the bridge a tiny piece of land she called home and the overwhelming Earth Kingdom just behind it, crowding the horizon. She was coming home for the first time after almost a year of absence. She left with a small team of friends, full of purpose and resolve, taking a ferry to the land, and walking and walking, looking for things to fight… until they got stuck.

She was returning home – with the group of friends that had increased in the most surprising way, on an airship that bore Fire Lord’s insignia outside and the peacefully sleeping Fire Lord inside. The Fire Lord’s girlfriend, with whom Suki owed both really horrible time in the prison and her life when escaping said prison, was now sitting with her warriors and reciting some amusingly morbid poetry in monotone. Another girl who got her and her team in prison was now one of them, as naturally as if she was born a Kyoshi warrior.

Three months ago, the war they went to fight was over. Sozin’s comet came and went. The Avatar defeated Fire Lord Ozai, and Suki, along with Sokka and Toph, took down the entire air fleet of the Fire Nation. A giggle rose inside her at the memory. She didn’t quite believe it herself and couldn’t imagine anyone on the island will believe that story. Back then, they didn’t think much, they were all mostly scared, then relieved that they managed not to die in the process. It felt like the biggest hot mess anyone could ever be in, with the light of the comet, the heat of all the fires, the screeching of metal moving and breaking…  
After the war neither she nor her warriors were ready to go home, so they decided to go and see Fire Nation – not from inside the prison, or from being on the run. Ty Lee offered to be their guide, and they spent three months traveling the Fire Nation islands like distinguished guests in an all-expenses-paid trip by Zuko as part of his “I am sorry” package. Only to return to the Capital City and the palace to find frantic and angry Mai writing Iroh because Zuko apparently forgot that he had to sleep occasionally and finally collapsed completely after one of the more arduous meetings.

And now they all were on the way to Kyoshi Island for some rest and relaxation.

She felt strange. The island looked so tiny, especially compared to the looming Earth Kingdom on the horizon and the multitudes of Fire Nation islands. The world was so big, and her island was so small that she could see the whole of it from above. How did she live there for sixteen years? Will she even be able to live there for the rest of her life?

Mai came closer and stood by in silence.

“How’s everything?” Suki asked.

“As well as it can be, I guess. Is that Kyoshi island?”

“Yes. Another hour and we’ll be landing.”

Mai nodded. She looked as if she wanted to say something else, but instead sighed and left.

* * *

Soon enough, they all were standing on the firm ground of her beloved home island. There was a crowd below, ready to meet them and attracted by the sight of a giant Fire Nation balloon. Suki had sent a messenger hawk to announce their arrival and not to freak people out much, but a lot of people still looked freaked out and wary.

The next day, another airship with the Earth King’s insignia landed, let out Sokka and Katara, and disappeared in the morning fog.

Suki flung herself onto Sokka. “I am so glad to see you! But I thought you would come with Aang on Appa!”

Sokka grinned happily and spent several minutes in her hug before answering. “Well. He missed your letter, but we sent the messenger hawk after him.”

“He left to talk to Guru Pathik a week ago.” Katara added, not hiding her disappointment. “We left him a message, and I hope he’ll come later. Guru Pathik is one of the couple of people in the world who remembers the world before, who remembers Air Nomads. It is too important for Aang to be able to talk to him while he still can.”

“Yeah, you know old people! They can just drop dead any moment.” Then a shadow covered Sokka’s face. “We should go visit Gran-Gran some time. She is not that old, but still.”

Katara patted him at the back and asked Suki. “Is everything ok? The letters we received were pretty frantic.”

“Yeah, we are all fine. Zuko forgot to sleep for several weeks and freaked Mai out. The girls and I were just having a really good time traveling.”

“Hi, everyone.” Zuko stepped out from behind her back awkwardly and waved. Suki almost forgot he was there, he was so quiet.

Sokka and Katara hugged him.

“And where is Toph? I thought you guys were all together.”

“She is off, doing her own thing. Decided to open a metalbending school. The problem is, nobody knows anything about metalbending, so it’s hard to find students. Plus, she hates Ba Sing Se, so she decided to try her luck on the west coast, in Yu Dao.”

“Do you have any means to tell her that we are all waiting for her here?”

“We sent a messenger to Yu Dao,, and wrote to Aang to pick Toph up on his way.”

“How did you forget to sleep, anyway?” Katara asked Zuko.

Zuko shrugged. “A lot of things to do.”

“So, who is running the Fire Nation while you are here? Azula?”

Unhappy look was Zuko’s obvious answer. Suki came to his rescue. “General Iroh has agreed to postpone his retirement for a year and assume the regency until Fire Lord Zuko can resume his governing. Zuko is not supposed to get any mail from the Fire Nation for three months, except personal messages.”

“Wow. That’s… Is it good or bad?”

“It is good.” Mai, who had stood further away all this time, with the crowd, came closer to greet Sokka and Katara. “if he died from exhaustion, Iroh would have to become Fire Lord permanently. And if not Iroh, then it’s Azula or Ozai. We don’t have many choices here.”

“You could, you know just choose one. Like people do?”

“When we want a civil war in the confused nation that’s used to central power we sure will do that.” Mai said as if it explained everything. Zuko winced in obvious understanding.

“Where are we going?” Katara asked as Suki led them away from the landing site.

“To my aunt Aya’s house. I hope you will stay there with me.”

“Sure, Suki. And where are you guys staying?” Sokka nodded to Mai and Zuko.

“In the tents.”

“We have a bit of a housing crisis here on the island. Due to the fact that most of the houses burned a year ago, and the rebuilding is going slowly.”

“Oh, no! I wonder what could have happened to them?” Katara asked in her sweetest tone possible.  
Zuko pretended he was not there, since they all knew the answer to her question.

“But I thought the responsible party paid some reparations to cover the cost.” Sokka said in confusion looking from her to Zuko and back.

“We have the gold, but it turns out that the gold doesn’t build houses by itself. People do, and we don’t have enough people right now to build fast.”

“Oh, I see the problem. Maybe we can come up with a solution because now you have two Water Tribe geniuses to solve your problems!” Sokka said, bombastic yet sweet. Suki squeezed his hand in appreciation.

“Suki, you said you live with your aunt...and your parents?” Katara said, noting the obvious omission.  
“My father was never a part of my family. His involvement ended… as soon as it started. I know his name. He is a fisherman somewhere around here, and I don’t want anything else from him. My mom was a Kyoshi warrior, too.”

“What happened to her?”

Suki knew about Sokka’s mom. Her situation was so different, but she wasn’t sure she could explain it right. “The pirates wanted to establish a base on our island. They harassed the fishermen, the merchants, and everyone in between. We are a small island with little farming land, most of it not very fertile. We make our living by fishing. We couldn’t afford pirates ruining our lives. The Kyoshi warriors, led by my mother, destroyed the base and the pirates’ ships. We haven’t seen pirates here since then. My mom was injured in the battle, and... she died a couple of days after their victory.”

She suddenly was surrounded by a massive hug from her friends, and given that her friends were all incredibly strong, she felt her bones creaking, but well, it was worth it.

“I am fine, really. It was the warriors’ life, it was the warriors’ death. I would be proud to die like she did.” It was what she had kept repeating all those years, but right now it didn’t sound very convincing.

“Hey! I don’t want you to die at all!” Sokka looked absolutely indignant, as if he was angry at the very prospect that she was mortal.

“Silly! I am not going to, not for another hundred years or so!” She laughed. The truth was that her feelings were complicated, and of course she would have preferred her mother to live, but it was the second best option. “I’ve lived with my aunt Aya, my mom’s older sister, ever since. She used to be a Kyoshi warrior, too.”

At night, Suki and her warriors made a large bonfire, and they all sat there, snuggling close and telling anecdotes from the time before. She basked in Sokka’s closeness even more than the warmth of the fire. He was burning with plans and ideas and she… she was slightly envious. She didn’t have many more plans than before – keep the peace, help where she could, defend those who can’t defend themselves. Before, her island was her world, and now it seemed that the world was her island... Where did it leave her island?

Katara sat on Sokka’s other side, staring at the sky. It was the night of the new moon, the sky dark but full of stars.

“Are you okay?” Suki asked her.

“I guess I am a bit directionless just now, and I miss Aang. I know how important it is for him to talk to Guru Pathik, and I know he’ll be here as soon as he can, but everything is so much better with him around.”

“I miss Aang, too.” Zuko said quietly. “I mean, it’s not that I…”

“He is going to be back by the Winter Solstice.” Katara said in an assuring bright voice. And well, they all wanted to be assured.

“Remember how much fun we all had last Winter Solstice?” Sokka nodded at Katara and Zuko.

“Oh, yeah, sneaking past Zhao’s blockade, trying to catch you and not let Zhao catch you at the same time with Uncle quietly sabotaging my efforts yet trying to keep me safe. Those were the times!” Zuko smirked in amusement.

“Don’t forget all the Fire Sages and lava!”

“How could I! The Fire Sages are still annoying me, but for different reasons.”

“I wish I was there.” Mai said. “My last Winter Solstices were all horrible.”

“My last Winter Solstice was amazing! We had such a beautiful show at the circus! Lots of fires and dancing, and I had an awesome routine with me dancing on the wire in a gilded crown… We had a huge success, the cheering crowds, adoring fans… it was nice.” Ty Lee looked up dreamily.

“The solstice is less than a month away, anyway. We will find something to entertain us.”

* * *

In the morning, Sokka came up with the perfect idea – they were all going to help build and fix the houses. Nobody argued against it, so Suki introduced them all to the construction crew. Having set her guests to work, she went back to her duties as the lead of Kyoshi warriors.  
They gathered in their training house and discussed their plans. What do they do now that the war is over? Some girls wanted to leave the island and see the world; some believed their duty laid in protecting the island as always. The war might have been over, but pirates still roamed the sea, after all. There was also the need to continue their tradition and train the new generation of girls to be Kyoshi warriors after them. In the end, they decided to start training all island kids who wanted to train as soon as they could, announce the classes, and get their first students.

Later, Suki dropped by the Kyoshi shrine to think alone, but shortly after she settled for meditation, Sokka arrived.

“What are you doing there? I thought you would be busy at the construction site.”

“I was, but it is a lunch break, and I missed you. Did you have lunch?”

“No. How did you find me there?”

“I am a world famous detective, I’ll have you know. I asked your friends leaving the training house.” He landed a tiny kiss on her nose, then looked around. “We were here, you know. Took Avatar Kyoshi’s precious clothes and fans to help Aang. I hoped to see you, too...”

“You did, eventually. And those were not her precious clothes, but copies, anyway. The shrine is a bit more her archive, really, with lots of things not on display.”

“Wow! Can I see them?”

“Sure. You can even have the best guide! But we probably should invite the rest for the tour. I don’t want to repeat everything several times.”

“Good idea. Tour later, makeout now?”

“I couldn’t say it better myself.” She leaned to kiss Sokka, but he avoided her kiss and worriedly looked around.

“Uhhhh, Kyoshi – she was not against makeouts, was she? She seems pretty severe, and I don’t want to offend her in her shrine.”

Suki laughed. “Believe me, she was very much pro-makeout and would be delighted.” A thought occurred to her. “You could probably ask Aang, later on.”

Sokka considered. “Nah, it would be weird. I believe you.” And they finally started kissing.

The next couple of days passed with Suki starting training new kids and the rest of her friends helping with the construction. There were usually only girls trained as Kyoshi warriors, which made sense before, since boys could become any kinds of warriors, anyway. But now they had so few kids willing to train, that Suki couldn’t bring herself to send the boys away. Instead she had another idea, which she explained to Sokka.

Sokka was ecstatic at the idea of training kids. “Can I wear a Kyoshi uniform, too? And get Zuko to wear it?”

“We are just training all kids who want to learn, not necessarily Kyoshi warriors, so there is no uniform required. But, if you want to wear a dress and make Zuko wear one, I can’t say ‘no’ to you.” Sokka looked good in whatever he wore, but thinking of him in a Kyoshi dress brought back good memories.

When the idea of training kids together was presented to Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee, they immediately agreed. Sokka did mention wearing the Kyoshi dress uniform while doing it, but Mai was the only one who firmly refused.

“You don’t mind?” Sokka asked Zuko.

Zuko frowned. “It doesn’t seem very comfortable, but okay.” Then he considered. “Oh, if you think I’ll be embarrassed… If I could die from embarrassment, I would have been dead for a long time already. So, I don’t care.”

* * *

One day the Royal Messenger Hawk came with the mail. Mai looked through it and gave Zuko his letter from Iroh, while reading the rest herself.

Zuko skimmed through his letter. “Hey, there is nothing but ramblings about weather and tea and health. I am glad my uncle is in good health and enjoying his tea, but that’s not the news I want to know!”

“Maybe, but those are the news you are allowed right now. Remember? No politics for three months.” Seeing her boyfriend distressed, Mai came closer. “Zuko, everything is okay. There is no huge crisis, no revolts, no unrest; your uncle is dealing with the small regular problems until you come back.” She cupped his cheek. “Zuko, please, we don’t want you to kill yourself trying to do everything at once. You have no idea how scary it was when you collapsed. We now have a chance to… just rest. You won’t have another chance like this.”

Zuko still looked grumpy and unhappy. “But I am your Fire Lord,” he said, half joking, “Don’t you have to obey me?”

Mai turned serious and took a step back from him. “You are always going to be my Fire Lord, and I will always be loyal. But do you also want to continue being my boyfriend?”

“Are you threatening me?”

She sighed. “You can order me, and I will say ‘yes, Firelord’ and will obey. And then I will leave. Or we can disagree and argue as equals. But you don’t get to order me then. Think about it.” She bowed and walked away.

“She is right, you know.” Sokka said, scratching his chin. “But also, you people are weird.”

Suki and Sokka stood and watched Zuko striding away to catch his disappearing girlfriend.

“Do you think they’ll manage to talk?” Sokka asked with the tone of a scientist observing interesting wildlife.

“I am cautiously optimistic. It is a small island, after all.”

Sokka nodded sagely. “What would you do if I told you I am your Fire Lord?”

She smirked. “Kicked your buttocks from here to the Fire Nation islands.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. If I ever need to get there really fast.” Then he grinned and pulled her into a kiss that was very welcomed.

A couple of hours later she saw Mai and Zuko sitting under a tree, snuggling and obviously lost to the world for the moment. ‘I guess they talked about what was bothering them.’ The snuggling mood was catching though; Suki found herself wishing to find Sokka, hug him and giggle in his neck. She smiled at the thought.

* * *

The next day, they made a schedule and decided to work with kids in groups of two, taking turns. The first turn had Suki and Zuko, and it wasn’t much of a success. Despite Sokka’s insistence of everyone wearing Kyoshi uniforms, it was decided that it would be better to start in the most comfortable clothes. Kids looked over Zuko in his regular red clothes with great suspicion. Suki introduced him as well as she could – everyone on the island knew about their arrival, but there had been no direct interactions until now. The children followed her instruction more or less well, but didn’t do anything Zuko asked them to do. After an hour exhausted and infuriated Zuko sat on the ground trying to calm himself.

The little students surrounded him.

“So you are the evil Fire Lord, yes?” a small boy asked.

Zuko didn’t answer.

“No, didn’t you hear Suki? He is another one, only a little bit evil,” an older girl, Rie, told him, eyeing Zuko with distrust.

“Why are you a little bit evil? Can you be good?” a very little girl called Yaama asked.

Zuko took a deep breath. “I am trying. To be good, I mean.”

Yaama kicked him. “You burned our village! It was mean!” Zuko winced, but didn’t move, just sat there on the ground, letting little kids kick him.

Suki appreciated the sentiment, but after a few moments of kids kicking Zuko and him not doing anything, she put a stop to it.

“Now, what Zuko did was wrong, and I feel your anger, but what you are doing now is not right, either. Zuko is helping to rebuild our village and fix what he and his people broke. He is my friend, and he is helping me to teach you to fight. So the best you can do now is to learn from him and from everyone else, so you could defend our village when needed.” Then she turned to Zuko and gave him a hand. “There is no need to feel sorry for yourself.”

“I know.” he took the offered hand and jumped lightly on his feet. “They are just too small to learn all the fighting secrets of the Fire Nation with which we could have been easily defeated.” He winked at Suki.

The kids apparently realized the unseen before advantages of learning from their Fire Nation guests, and the training went on more or less smoothly since then.

Suki gave her friends the promised tour through Kyoshi’s archives. She pointed at the things she loved the most and read her favorite moments from the diary of Jinpa, Kyoshi’s long time secretary and friend. Katara found some notes on waterbending and settled in to study them. Zuko seemed mildly fascinated by everything until he found two scrolls, and his eyes lit up and he almost jumped from excitement.

“It’s an old classical play! I’ve heard about it, but the full text was considered lost for the last hundred of years!” Then the realization dawned. “Damn. Can I copy it, please?”

Mai and Zuko spent their free time copying the play the days after the tour, Katara studied waterbending, and Ty Lee decided to practice her old circus routine to show for the Winter Solstice. Sokka seemed to enjoy just trailing Suki, talking or inventing occasionally crazy ways to improve life on the island. The weather grew colder. Mai, Ty Lee and Zuko all moved into actual houses by now, while they still were helping with repairs of the burned ones. By this time, Kyoshi Island was usually covered in snow.This year, nice autumn weather lingered.

When Zuko had two fresh copies of the play, he had a new idea – to perform it. Mai rolled her eyes, said he was free to enjoy himself as he saw fit, and offered Katara her help in coping the waterbending scrolls instead. Zuko, undeterred, collected the kids fascinated by the idea of an actual theater performance and started rehearsals.

Mai and Ty Lee were sitting on a large rock on the beach and skipping stones. They were not bad at it. Suki joined them. She was the Island Stone Skipping Champion, but decided that it wasn’t time to show off. Maybe only a little. So the three of them just sat in silence, skipping stones and enjoying peace and quiet together. They were good at peace and quiet.

A loud argument behind broke the quiet. Suki turned – Zuko and Katara talked about something very angrily, but they were too far for her to understand what exactly they were arguing about. Then the sound of a large splash ended the conversation, and unhappy Katara strode by them.

“Do you know what that was about?”

Ty Lee shrugged. “Too many possibilities.”

“Probably about former colonies.” Mai said. “They agree in principles, but there are so many pesky little details...”

“I thought Zuko is not allowed to talk about politics right now.”

“He can talk about anything he wants, and I am not his prison guard to stop it. I now think even the idea about mail was stupid, but we all were panicking then.”

Zuko laid on the ground sulking. He didn’t give a sign he noticed them, staring in the sky. Mai threw knives that neatly circled him. That got his attention.

“Hey! You could have cut me!”

Mai sat beside him. “You have so little trust in me? You think I would miss from this distance?”

“No. Just… It would be the perfect end for this day. My life sucks. It was supposed to get right. I was trying to bring peace and right all the wrong and... and I suck.”

“Is it from the play?” Ty Lee asked innocently.

“NO, IT’S FROM MY LIFE!”

“It sounded like your monologue from the play, that’s all” Ty Lee was relentless.

Zuko huffed and didn’t say anything.

“Maybe we could write a play about Zuko? I’ll talk to Sokka, he’ll be all about it.” Suki giggled.

“Just leave me alone.” Zuko groaned.

Mai gently stroked his forehead, “Are you sure about it?”

“No.” He caught her hand and squeezed it.

“We could lay here in the dirt together. I suppose it should be romantic.” Mai said, every word dripping with sarcasm.

Zuko finally turned and looked at their grinning faces. “Yeah, well. I know, it was stupid.”

“Let’s go get lunch.” Suki said and everyone agreed it was the best idea.

* * *

They were on Kyoshi Island for more and two weeks, finding a comfortable routine with teaching children, helping around with repairs and everything else and their amusements. They spent time by themselves or all of them together, and Suki found out how much she enjoyed the company of her boyfriend without a huge looming crisis to resolve. There were some small crises instead that were much easier to deal with.

One day she found Sokka nervously pacing in front of her aunt’s house.

“Why? How? What’s wrong with this picture?” Sokka looked disturbed and Suki felt a bit worried.

“What do you mean?”

“Why is Zuko a better teacher than I am? Zuko! Of all the people!” Sokka was waving his arms in great agitation. “When he was teaching Aang firebending, it was ok! He was our only option and they both were very determined to get Aang to master it as fast as possible. But now we are dealing with a bunch of nonbender kids. I should be able to teach them better! I have some experience! They like me! They listen to me! But Zuko is the better teacher. How is that even possible?”

Suki both enjoyed the rant and admitted that it was a puzzling truth. Somehow, Zuko, as impatient and dramatic as he normally is, when he was teaching, became calm and focused. He managed to explain using the dao swords so well, she picked it up herself even though she wasn’t a fan (she giggled at the thought) of swords before that.

***

“We are going fishing!” Suki announced one morning. Sokka immediately jumped up excitedly.

“Sorry, my love. You and Zuko have classes to teach. It’s a girls’ trip, for Katara, and Mai, and Ty Lee and whoever else wants to join us.”

Sokka looked like he wanted to say something else, but settled for a petulant “It’s not sporting, to go fishing with Katara. She’ll just get you water with the fish and be done with it.”

“It’s not about sport, it’s about fun.”

“Fine. Of course you need to go and have fun. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“Don’t worry,” Mai’s monotone cut through. “Without you we won’t have much incentive to so something stupid.”

Zuko smirked. “Nah, I believe you can do everything you want.”

“That’s just the thing: we can, but we won’t.”

The boys left grumbling, mostly for show. (Suki believed they both thoroughly enjoyed teaching young kids to defend themselves.) Even if Sokka bemoaned justly his lack of teaching skills, and Zuko complained about everything, it was obvious they made a good teaching team. The kids loved them.  
Which left her free to have fun.

She led her three friends to the bay where the elephant koi lived. Katara and Mai argued about something, Ty Lee was singing jauntily, and she kept thinking about teaching. They all took part in teaching kids the techniques they knew, and now Suki found herself thinking how different their teaching styles were and how they all made a good team together.

She and Sokka – their class was fun, but Sokka did have trouble explaining how things worked, and why they had to do them in a certain way. Zuko and Sokka together made a good team of showing how stuff worked, and Zuko often could provide clear explanations. ‘Probably because he had really good teachers who explained it to him’, Suki suddenly realized, just as she had. Mai with Zuko also made a good team, built on old familiarity and trust. Mai was very precise in words and movements, and it was easy to follow and understand everything she had to explain. She also used Zuko for target practice which cheered the kids up, even if she never allowed anyone else to do the same. And Zuko never seemed to be bothered that his girlfriend throws knives in his direction. Ty Lee was fun, and kids adored her, but like Sokka she was unable to explain to kids what she did – even though she had no problem teaching the Kyoshi warriors.

Katara was now beside Suki. “You know, Sokka is right, actually. I can just get all the fish out of water if I need to.”

“I guess, but it is not really about fish. We don’t need the fish itself, we need to enjoy the process.”

“I can do that, too.” Katara looked around, and her eyes caught a mad sparkle. “Wait, can we ride the elephant koi?”

Suki laughed. “That was the idea, actually. I just tried to present it as boring as possible, I didn’t want Sokka to get too upset at missing it.”

“Well, they can do it another time.”

“Should we be worried about Unagi?”

“It knows me, so we are going to be fine. ”

It was a bit too cold to ride elephant koi this close to the solstice, so they made a huge bonfire first to warm themselves up. Katara jumped into the water, surfed up, and soon enough an elephant koi appeared, slightly confused about why the water brought it there. Katara jumped on it with a loud squeal and rode it, laughing.  
“Do you want a turn or do you want to join me?” she cried to them.

Suki, Mai and Ty Lee looked at each other and jumped into the water to join Katara. It was much easier to ride a giant fish with a master waterbender on board. They screamed, laughed and giggled, holding onto each other trying to stay on slippery wiggling back of the giant fish. Eventually, they fell into the water and got to the shore. Katara decided to swim alone, and Suki went to show Ty Lee how they normally ride the koi, nonbender style. Mai said it was all too much fun for her and left with a fishing rod in search of a quiet place.

An hour later, they were sitting by the fire, warming themselves up after cold water. Katara managed to dry their wet clothes with water bending, so they all were perfectly comfortable. Mai reappeared with three guppy-mackerels she managed to catch.

“Wow. How did YOU know how to fish?” Katara sounded incredulous as she picked up the mackerels and prepared them for roasting.

Mai shrugged. “Fire Nation Academy for Girls.”

“I thought you learned how to kill people and attack cities there.”

“Also math, calligraphy, manners and survival. Survival meant they dropped us alone in the wilderness and we had to arrive back to the Caldera in time.”

“Was it hard?”

Mai and Ty Lee exchanged glances and said in unison, “Nah.”

The fish that Mai caught was unnecessary, since they had two baskets of perfect picnic food with them: bread, and fruit, and cured meat and fish, and cookies, but it still felt good - to have a kettle with boiling water, and fish roasting on the sticks in the fire. The sun set, and a half of the moon shone above them.

Katara was looking at the moon, deep into her memories. Finally, she said, “You know, I really miss Yue. You all would have loved her; she was awesome.”

Suki wasn’t sure what to say. By all accounts Yue was a remarkable person, and it would be interesting to talk to her. The Sokka thing made it a bit awkward, but really – a girl sacrificed her life for the world, and Suki what? Begrudge her good taste in men? No way.

“She was the best princess I knew,” Katara added musingly.

Ty Lee giggled. “That would be quite a competition. ‘Who is the best princess?’ I so wish to see it!”

“Preferably from a large distance.” Mai’s suggestion was the one that set the group rolling with laughter.

The image of two princesses competing for the nebulous award of being the best princess was so absurd that they couldn’t stop laughing for so long they didn’t notice Zuko and Sokka appearing out of the dark looking rather confused.

Suki got up, wiping tears from her eyes, and went to kiss her boyfriend.

“What is happening here? Did you catch any fish?”

“Sure, Mai got the ones we are roasting. Sorry my love, we just imagined a competition between Azula and Yue - who is the better princess.”

Zuko chuckled in understanding and sat by Mai’s side, circling her in his embrace.

Sokka lost words in indignation. “How? How is that even a competition?”

“Just because you believe Yue is better doesn’t mean Azula would agree with you.”

“Or with reality,” Katara said.

“Anyway, how was your class?”

“We got the little monsters to do some approximation of the proper footwork and called it a day,” Sokka answered with a mix of pride and exhaustion.

“Nice. Come, sit with us.” Suki gestured at him and opened her arms.

Sokka joined them by the fire, and the six teenagers sat together, talked, laughed and looked into the starry sky until they started falling asleep. The sky became dark from the clouds, snow started falling, and they all hurried to pack and leave.

* * *

The next morning the island was covered in a fluffy white blanket of snow. Suki cried out in delight and ran outside to play. When she turned, the Water Tribe siblings were standing and watching her in amusement.

“Come on, the first snow of the year is the best! I know you don’t find it exciting, but I love it!” She threw a snowball at Sokka. He yelled and jumped after her. Soon the three of them were laughing and rolling in the fresh sparkling snow, occasionally screaming insults at one another.

“Hey! Throwing snow under the collar is just mean! And you are not supposed to use waterbending for this!”

“I can use my waterbending for anything and nobody can stop me!” Katara laughed, making a snow cocoon around her brother.

“Why do I have you for a sister?”

“You got lucky.”

There was no argument with this last statement, so Sokka changed his tactics. “Let’s go attack our tropical friends. I bet they’ll enjoy the snow even more.”

After an enormous snowball fight and spending most of the day building a snow castle with their little students, they almost didn’t notice the sky bison quietly descending from the blue sky.

“Aang! Toph! Momo! Appa! Aang!”

There was much hugging (and slightly less kissing involved) as friends met with each other.

“Wow, Aang, you’ve grown!” Katara said in an almost accusatory tone.

“So did everyone else!” He replied with the widest grin.

“But I was much taller than you just a month ago!”

Aang shrugged. “I was twelve for a hundred years. I am ready to be a teenager already.”

“Come on guys, we came here to have fun and kick asses, not compare heights.” Toph stopped their mutual gazing. “And I am very much against this disgusting cold wet stuff under my feet. It’s hard to see anything in this weather.”

“Sorry, Toph,” Suki said, “Weather attacked us last night. In its defense, snow doesn’t usually stay for long here. I think tomorrow the streets are going to be clean.”

“They’d better be.” Toph grumbled, stepping carefully through the snow.

“But snow or not, we all are happy to see you here. It’s only a week till Winter Solstice; there are a lot of things to do together!”

And they all went to talk, to laugh, and to enjoy each other’s company and getting ready to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

**Author's Note:**

> Jinpa is a character from the novel "The Shadow of Kyoshi" by F.C. Yee. He is an Air Nomad and a self-appointed Kyoshi's secretary. And I am pretty sure he left some hilarious notes or a diary to read. And I am pretty sure Suki and other Kyoshi warriors all read it.
> 
> Given that we are in Suki's POV and on the Kyoshi's island with her, I had to come with some backstory for her. I like what I came up with. Some day, the recently announced Suki graphic novel will come out, and I will be proven wrong. I am looking forward to it!  
> And then I went and made an illustration for one of the scenes.
> 
> [Image description: A simply drawn pencil sketch illustrating the scene from the story when the girls were riding an elephant koi in the bay of the Kyoshi Island. In the upper part of the drawing, there are large semicircular lines representing hills. In the lower part of the drawing, there are smaller wave-like lines representing the water of the bay. In the middle of the picture, there is a giant fish with large eyes and mouth. On the back of the fish, there are four schematically drawn figures of the girls. The first one, with hair loopies and with arms extending forward in a waterbending gesture , is Katara. The second one, with short hair, holding onto Katara, is Suki. The third figure, with hair buns, is Mai, also sitting and holding onto Suki. The fourth one, with one braided ponytail, standing on the fish’s back with her arm outstretched, is Ty Lee. /End ID.]


End file.
